Cop who shot Anthony Grainger is contradicted at inquiry

The Greater Manchester Police officer who shot Anthony Grainger in March 2012, known only as Q9, had their account contradicted at an inquiry last week.

X7 was the Operational Firearms Commander (OFC) in charge of the operation on the ground

X7 said that they reached the driver’s side of the car that Anthony was in before he was shot. They said Anthony was alive when they reached the driver’s door and that they “shouted instructions at the driver to keep his hands up”.

According to X7, Anthony was complying with these instructions and was looking directly at them slightly turning his head to his right with his hands raised.

They stated that Anthony flinched a few seconds later when the glass was broken to deploy a gas canister, and “then he just started lowering his hands very very slowly” before slumping to his right.

This contradicts Q9, who claimed that they did not see X7 by the driver’s door, that Anthony made a sudden movement with this hand towards his lap, and that they fired the shot before the gas canister was deployed.

Forensic scientist Philip Seaman said that the scientific evidence supports the position of Anthony “being turned partly to his right” when shot.

Andre Botha conducted an examination of the scene on 4 March 2012 and came to very similar conclusions of Anthony “leaning slightly forward, turned slightly to his right”.

The scientific evidence seems to broadly support X7’s account of Anthony looking directly at them while being challenged.

The inquiry also questioned the Authorised Firearms Officer (AFO) known as W4, who was the driver of the car Q9 was in.

W4 stated that the “thought did go through my mind” that Anthony could be reaching for a weapon but had not included this in their account.

Several details were missing from W4’s account. It was suggested to W4 at the inquiry that they were not in fear of their safety otherwise “these important details would be in this account”. W4 said, “that is not correct”.